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A pesticide warning sign in a field at Akers Street and Ferguson Avenue in Visalia states that methyl bromide and chloropicrin are in use. The Department of Pesticide Regulation issued temporary guidelines for the pesticide chlorpyrifos that include banning it from crop dusting, discontinuing its use on most crops and increasing perimeters around where it’s applied.(Photo: File)

California regulators recommended new restrictions Thursday on a widely used pesticide blamed for harming the brains of babies.

The Department of Pesticide Regulation issued temporary guidelines for chlorpyrifos that include banning it from crop dusting, discontinuing its use on most crops and increasing perimeters around where it’s applied.

The Dow Chemical Co. pesticide currently used on about 60 different crops – including grapes, almonds and oranges – has increasingly come under fire from regulators, lawmakers and courts.

Statewide, its use has dropped by about 50 percent since 2005, when more than 2 million pounds were used.

In Monterey County, the pesticide was mainly used on wine grapes in the Salinas Valley in 2016, the most recent year of data available from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Monterey County farmers have also greatly reduced the use of chlorpyrifos — only 1,100 pounds have been used so far this year, said Bob Roach, assistant agriculture with the county.

"Its days are numbered," he said.

Pounds of chlorpyrifos used in Monterey County and California over 10 years, according to the state's Department of Pesticide Regulation.(Photo: Joe Szydlowski)

There were 25 applications of it at a local vineyard, two applications to the soil in onion fields and 10 inside greenhouses, he said.

None of them were aerial applications, he said. The vineyard used a ground-based sprayer pulled by a tractor, he said.

A federal appeals court in August ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove the pesticide from sale in the United States after it ruled the Trump administration endangered public health by reversing an Obama-era effort to ban the chemical. The EPA is appealing that 2-1 ruling to a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hawaii passed legislation in June that will ban the use of the pesticide in January.
An environmental group blasted the new recommendations as toothless and said California should be taking the pesticide off the market after scientists for three state agencies found it was toxic and couldn’t be safely used at any levels.

“Unfortunately, these are voluntary recommendations for local officials that have no weight of law behind them,” said Paul Towers of the Pesticide Action Network. “Instead of taking this brain-harming pesticide off the market, California officials are again passing the buck.”

It's unlikely any agricultural commissioners would ignore the restrictions, making them "in effect mandatory restrictions," said Roach with the Monterey County Agriculture Commissioner's office.

The county is contacting the 19 growers who have permits to use chlorpyrifos to notify them of the new rules, he said. It will also require them to reapply for a permit to use the chemical next year, although only four agricultural operations with those permits actually used the pesticide in 2018, Roach said.

The California action comes as the state considers long-term regulations to restrict the use of chlorpyrifos and designate it as a “toxic air contaminant” that poses a risk of serious illness or death.

Farmworkers in the nation’s leading agricultural state have been sickened several times in recent years when the pesticide drifted.

More than three dozen workers harvesting cabbage in Kern County last year were affected when the pesticide drifted from neighboring farms, causing some to become nauseous and vomit and sending some for medical treatment, the department said.

At least 13 people were affected in four incidents this year, including 10 workers in Solano County where the pesticide was applied to an almond orchard in July.

Farm workers use a tractor on a field outside Salinas. The American Civil Liberties Union says a new report on the pesticide chlorpyrifos' dangers needed to go much further in its analysis of the risks to farm laborers.(Photo: Joe Szydlowski)

The pesticide is in a class of organophosphates chemically similar to a nerve gas developed by Nazi Germany before World War II. Its heavy use has often left traces in drinking water sources. A University of California at Berkeley study in 2012 found that 87 percent of umbilical-cord blood samples tested from newborn babies contained detectable levels of the pesticide.

Under pressure from federal regulators, Dow voluntarily withdrew chlorpyrifos for use as a home insecticide in 2000. EPA also placed “no-spray” buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, in 2012.

Dow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sherwood Elementary School teacher Oscar Ramos voices his opposition to the use of chlorpyrifos(Photo: Provided)

Monterey County and Salinas residents have also leaned on local and state governments to ban the pesticide in recent years.

In 2017, more than two dozen people rallied in Salinas, calling for a ban on chlorpyrifos to mark Cesar Chavez Day.

Later that year, locals also went to Sacramento to push for the state to end usage of the chemical.

The Department of Pesticide Regulation action comes as the state proposes designating chlorpyrifos as a “toxic air contaminant” that poses a risk of serious illness or death.

In the meantime, the department is recommending county agriculture commissioners, who issue pesticide application permits, adopt the restrictions in January so they can protect health.

“This is like our short-term fix,” said department spokeswoman Charlotte Fadipe. “We’ve already started down a longer road to a permanent fix.”

Other recommendations include creating a 150-foot setback from homes, businesses and schools where the pesticide is applied. During applications, there would have to be a quarter-mile buffer zone for 24 hours around any field where the pesticide is applied and the only people allowed inside the area would be authorized applicators.

The department also recommended limiting use of chlorpyrifos to certain crops to combat specific pests, such as weevils and certain types of aphids on alfalfa, stink bugs on almonds and maggots on leafy vegetables and onions.